Paul Weiss calls bid to disqualify law firm in sugar antitrust case ‘gamesmanship’
By Mike Scarcella
WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Law firm Paul Weiss urged a federal judge in Minnesota on Wednesday to reject a bid from Mondelēz and other major food manufacturers to disqualify the firm from defending Domino Sugar and its owner ASR Group in a group of lawsuits over alleged price-fixing in the sugar industry.
Here are the details:
In its court filing, Paul Weiss denied the food manufacturers’ claim that the firm has a conflict of interest based on its earlier effort to represent the companies as plaintiffs in the same litigation.
The law firm said the lead Paul Weiss attorneys who pitched representing the food companies have since left the firm. Paul Weiss criticized the move to disqualify the firm as “strategic gamesmanship at its worst and entirely without merit.”
ASR and Domino in a separate filing on Wednesday defended Paul Weiss and urged the court not to disqualify the firm. “ASR/Domino would lose the attorneys who know their business, the industry, and the issues better than anyone," they said.
Mondelez, ASR and Paul Weiss did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The manufacturers in seeking to oust Paul Weiss argue that they provided confidential strategy and pricing data to the firm in 2024 when they were preparing to bring the case and the law firm was vying to represent them. Paul Weiss countered that the only information sent to the firm was "historical purchasing data from just one of the plaintiffs."
Mondelez's lawsuit and a group of similar cases allege ASR and other sugar producers engaged in illegal price coordination. A judge last year allowed groups of proposed class actions to advance. ASR and other defendants have denied any wrongdoing.
The lead Paul Weiss attorneys who earlier sought to represent the food manufacturer plaintiffs, including William Isaacson, left the firm last year to open a new law firm.
Paul Weiss became involved in the case as defense counsel for ASR and Domino in September last year, when Djordje Petkoski, the lead attorney for the companies, joined Paul Weiss from rival law firm A&O Shearman.
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